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Sunday, November 14, 2010

Working Girl

Day one of the Big Scary Leap is over! And it was rather anticlimactic really... I was bored silly (well, sillier than usual). It was really quiet - I didn't have any makeup clients at all and compared to always having Stuff To Do at home, it felt like I was bludging the whole time.

I was super impressed with myself for remembering my computer log on when I got there, but that was about all I remembered. Each time someone asked me where a product was I'd ummm and arrr (like a pirate) and end up asking The Mad Pharmacist (the only other staff member on yesterday). Luckily The Mad Pharmacist and I get on really well so instead of getting annoyed with me, he just teased me mercilessly than listened patiently while I rabbited on about Tricky.

So how did my Pros and Cons list fare?

Cons:

- I'd miss out on Tricky-time

After making Map Guy and Tricky walk in with me (yes for those extra few moments – gawd I'm just a pile of mush these days) I said good bye, gave my boys a kiss each and that was it really, I did miss him, but I didn't pine over him like I expected. Probably because I talked about him incessantly a little bit and had my phone full of photos to look at. At the end of the day I did shower him is so many kisses and cuddles that he had about three layers of drool on him (compared to his usual two).

- I'd have to express multiple times a day at work and I already feel like a cow
Expressing is a bitch. I do it once a day for the premmie bubs but having to do it multiple times in one day was a bit of a bummer. I have no idea how the gals that exclusively express manage to do it. But we do what we have to do, right?

- Map Guy and I will only get one day a week together

Quality not quantity, right? Which basically means it's only been one day and I have no idea if this an issue or not, so, um, yeah, let's just ignore it for a while, OK?

Pros:

+ We'd have more money
Go to work = get paid. Awesome. But go to work and sell a lot of stuff = get bonus! I get a $5 bonus each time I sell more than $100 of stuff in one transaction, so yesterday I managed to do that twice. I'm constantly amazed at how much crap people buy. But yay for bonuses! I will buy something shiny with that moolah.

I confess to going to the toilet just because I could... Yes, I'm really that pathetic. But what I didn't even think of was the expressing break – I was moaning about expressing and not realising that I'd be sitting alone in the office to do it and could therefore do what all good employees do when slacking off at work and check my email, FaceBook and Twitter! Score!

+ I'd get to talk to adults about things other than poo and wee

I forgot just how much poo and wee talk goes on in a pharmacy. Diarrhea, constipation, urinary tract infections and more. Then of course there is the scab, pus and miscellaneous itching talk that goes on in any pharmacy. My iron stomach got a work out.

The final verdict: I had a pretty good day! I'd forgotten how much I liked chatting to clients and laughing til it hurt with The Mad Pharmacist... I think I'll go back next week.

It's fantastic your first day went great! Definitely a giant leap - I can't even remember what a lunch break feels like... It was great meeting you last week, BTW. Hopefully we can all catch up again soon.

There is a room out the back for Beauty Therapy and Naturopath treatments, so I sat in there and played on my phone. There isn't a lock on the door but it was only me and The Mad Pharmacist on and he was out the front serving customers. I'm not sure of the laws around providing a place to express... You could contact the Australian Breastfeeding Association, they'd know the deal http://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/

Hope you're enjoying it! I know PT work came with lots of added pressure, but helped bring some balance to my life. At first I couldn't really juggle between the role and the hours I could throw at it. But once that was sorted, it's true ... everything positive that you mentioned I really enjoyed about working. And it was quite relaxing too. It's great not being distracted and zoned out, isn't it? Check out this post I have which is a little related titled 'PT Parents are Great to Work With'. http://www.superparents.com.au/blog/2010/06/part-time-jobs-parents-are-great-to-work-with/ - Cheers and Good Luck! Hope to see you soon, Colin